Colombian nun kidnapped in Mali meets Pope after release
A Colombian nun who was kidnapped nearly five years ago in Mali met with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Sunday.
The Holy See said the two had a conversation before and after mass at St Peter’s Basilica.
The news comes after the Malian presidency’s office said on Twitter that Gloria Cecilia Narvaez, who had been kidnapped near the southern town of Koutiala close to the Burkina Faso border on February 7, 2017, was freed on Saturday.
“I am immensely happy to hear the news of the liberation in Mali of our beloved compatriot, sister Gloria Cecilia Narvaez,” Colombian Vice President and Foreign Minister Marta Lucia Ramirez said in a statement.
Ramirez said that Colombian authorities had been working for “many months” towards that goal, with President Ivan Duque personally bringing up the case with the leaders of Mali, Senegal and Ghana.
The foreign minister also said that during her recent visit to Paris, she had “the opportunity to analyse the latest evidence of Narvaez’s survival,” adding that she asked the French government for help in the effort to rescue the Franciscan sister.
In 2018, Colombian authorities said that an al-Qaeda cell holding the nun demanded a ransom for her release. In a video, the group accused Narvaez of trying to rob Malian Muslims of their faith and replace it with falsehoods.
Then-Colombian foreign minister Maria Angela Holguin disputed the conversion motive, saying the missionary was being held for economic reasons.
Members of religious orders or aid organizations regularly become victims of kidnappings by militants or extremists in Mali and other parts of West Africa, usually in the hope of obtaining a ransom.
Narvaez was accused of trying to rob Malian Muslims of their faith and replace it with falsehoods